Marvel's former Captain America is the latest Avenger to deny any further return to the franchise, which seems like a co...
Marvel's former Captain America is the latest Avenger to deny any further return to the franchise, which seems like a compelling claim at this point.
Last week, Benedict Cumberbatch made the bold announcement that Doctor Strange would not appear in Avengers: Doomsday — only to backtrack and admit that yes, we will see the Sorcerer Supreme in that film instead of waiting for Avengers: Secret Wars. His Avengers co-star Chris Evans, the former Captain America, picked up on the hint and insisted that his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was over, done, done.
This latest statement — made in an Esquire article by The Hollywood Reporter in a profile of current Captain America, Anthony Mackie, whose Captain America: Brave New World is released on February 14 — is entering record-breaking territory at this point.
In response to the recent December 2024 trade talk about his return, Evans told the magazine, "It's not true ... it happens all the time. I mean, it happens every few years — since Endgame. I just stopped responding to it," and added that he's "happily retired."
And it's true: Evans' return to the MCU has been rumored for years (in 2023, he said "never say never" about returning to the role of Cap, which he called "a valuable role to me") — and Marvel fans technically brought him back, though he did make a joke about his Fantastic Four character Johnny Storm for a surprise cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine last summer.
Mackie told Esquire that he was as shocked as everyone else at that December report, claiming that "I didn't know! ... I was thinking, 'You know, they said they were bringing everyone back for the movie. Are you coming back?'" Apparently, Mackie harbors a similar sense of mystery to Evans, and says he told Esquire exactly what Evans told him: "I'm happily retiring."
The truth is, Avengers: Doomsday will likely remain a big ball of mystery until much closer to its release in May 2026. What we don't know about it so far includes whether some of the Russo Brothers' directors will return to the MCU and whether former Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. will step into the role of Doctor Doom.
But you can be sure that all of Marvel's big, juicy secrets - like, say, Chris "I'm Retired" Evans dusting off his Cap costume, or perhaps portraying another character entirely (probably not Johnny Storm), - will remain a secret until audiences get to the theaters.
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